Granola

I have been on a granola kick for a couple of weeks now.  There is just something so delicious about eating a homemade breakfast.  Granola is great for that because unlike most homemade breakfast foods, it has to be made ahead thus does not require effort in the morning.  I'm all for making eggs, meat, hash browns, pancakes, french toast etc. for breakfast but lets be honest, I have no interest in doing that every day!  Even simple hot cereal takes some effort and usually a dirty, sticky pan to wash.  Granola on the other hand requires exactly the same effort to eat as cold cereal from the store but is oh so much better!  It is hard for me to shell out between $4 and $6 a box of special, interesting and good cereal costs at the store.  Those boxes are usually a quarter the size of typical Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes thus only hold three or four average servings making the cost per bowl almost as much as a full hot breakfast. 

With granola I can customize the extras to my tastes by adding whatever I have around and whatever sounds good to me at the time.  I use my grandma's granola recipe and it covers pretty much everything I love in cereal.

6C        Oatmeal
1/2 C    Sunflower seeds
1/2 C    Wheat germ
1/2 C    Coconut
1/2 C    Nuts
1/2 C    Raisins
1/4 C    Brown sugar
1/2 C    Oil
1/2 C    Honey

Mix all the dry ingredients you are using in a large bowl.  Warm up the oil and honey, pour over the rest of the ingredients and mix all together.  Spread on two cookie sheets and bake for about an hour at around 350.  Stir the granola in the oven about every 15 minuets.  Watch the granola!  It burns very quickly.

My changes:  Craisins instead of raisins.  I bet any chopped, dried fruit would be delicious.  Also, I don't add the fruit until after baking, it seems to get a little too dried out.  Grandma's recipe calls for almonds but I have chopped pecans so I used them instead.  The ratios can be played with and you can always add or omit anything depending on your taste or what you have lying around the house.  My favorite thing is the craisins and pecans.  I love cereal with fruit and nuts in it but usually take one look at the price and grab a bag of Toasty O's instead.  I feel like homemade granola is cheaper and probably better.  I have not actually figured the cost of making a batch so maybe it is more than a box of cereal.  Especially with the cost of ingredients here in the oil patch!  But I'll continue to make it for a while until I get tired of it and go back to making something else in the morning, like eggs in a round barrel with cheese.